Chambers Ireland Weekly Digest: 29th Jan 2018
- Extended Deadline for the three Regional Economic & Spatial Strategies
Please note that the Regional Economic & Spatial Strategies (RSES) Issues Papers consultation period deadline for the Northern & Western Regional Assembly, the Eastern & Midland Regional Assembly and the Southern Regional Assembly has been extended to 5PM on Friday, 16 February 2018.
If you have any queries please contact elisha.collierobrien@chambers.ie.
- RTÉ Program on Local Business Family for Papal Visit
RTÉ have contacted Chambers Ireland regarding the development of a documentary as part of the national broadcasters’ range of programming to coincide with the Papal visit to Ireland later this year.
RTÉ One are developing a documentary with the working title of “The Pope and Us”, due for broadcast on the channel this Summer.
The documentary will focus on the three Papal ‘encyclicals’ which Pope Francis has written since the beginning of his Papacy, outlining his radical views about capitalism, climate change and family.
With these views as context to the documentary, the programme aims to focus on a successful family of business people, with one of the family members holding a community leadership role and that same family member or another family member must also be a committed Roman Catholic.
The specific criteria includes the following:
- A successful family of business people;
- Ideally with an extended family
- One or more family member(s) active in some kind of leadership role(s) in the community
- One of whom is a committed Roman Catholic
- Grandparents and adult children would also be ideal for the programme
If you know any local businesses run by families within your Chamber or community or any family which fits this criteria who would be interested in this, please contact Gabriel.doran@chambers.ie for further information and to register your interest.
- InterTradeIreland Breakfast Briefings & Go2Tender
InterTradeIreland, in partnership with the Office of Government Procurement, Ibec, SFA, ISME, CIF and Chambers Ireland are delivering a series of breakfast workshops to educate and engage businesses on the island around public procurement, a market worth in the region of €12 billion per annum.
Please find attached schedule of Breakfast Briefings and Go2Tender workshops to be delivered by InterTradeIreland.
The first Breakfast Briefing, which is taking place on Wednesday, 31 January 2018, will be opened by Minister of State O’Donovan and is now available to register for by following this link.
Please find attached the schedule of upcoming Breakfast Briefings – please circulate this schedule and this notice providing an overview of the briefings with your members.
- European Movement Ireland – Citizens’ Dialogue on the Future of Europe, featuring Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee TD
As part of the Future of Europe Dialogues series, European Movement Ireland, Ireland’s oldest European-affairs-focused organisation, will be organizing the latest Citizens’ Dialogue to take place on Thursday 8 February 2018 at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG).
The public dialogue is a unique opportunity to discuss the role of Ireland and its citizens in the Future of Europe. In attendance will be Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee TD, joined by Pat McDonagh, CEO of Supermac’s and Noelle O’Connell, Executive Director of European Movement Ireland.
Attendance is free, however registration before the event is required.
To register and for further information, please click here.
- Enterprise Ireland Competitive Start Fund for Start-Ups
Enterprise Ireland have revealed their first start-up fund for this year, with the maximum support available worth €50,000 for a 10% ordinary equity stake for each applicant start-up company deemed eligible. The total fund is worth €750,000.
The fund is open to early stage companies in manufacturing and internationally traded services, including the following subsectors: Internet, Games, Apps, Mobile, SaaS, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Software, Lifesciences, Food, Cleantech and Industrial Products.
The call opens for applications on Tuesday, 23 January 2018 – all completed applications to the fund must be made via the Enterprise Ireland Online Application System and a video pitch must also be submitted additionally, on the Sonru.com platform.
The completed application form must be submitted by 3pm on Tuesday 6 February 2018.
The Video Pitch must be submitted by 11.59pm on Tuesday 6 February 2018.
To access the online application platforms and for more information on the fund, visit the webpage on the Enterprise Ireland website by clicking here.
- The National Sustainability Summit 2018
The 2018 National Sustainability Summit will be held on Wednesday, 31 January 2018 in the Citywest Hotel, Dublin.
Following the 2017 edition of the Summit which attracted over 1000 delegates to engage with 80 speakers and over 50 exhibitors of cutting edge technology and services, this year’s summit will expand in scope with a line up of 120 speakers from senior management from the largest and most influential Irish and international companies who have delivered quantifiable eco results. Additionally the summit will feature speakers across a diverse range of relevant areas including pharmaceutical, food, IT, energy and more.
Key topics at the summit will include water management, energy efficiency, sustainable energy, recycling, consumer engagement and more.
For further information and to register your attendance, click here.
- Commission for Regulation of Utilities – Consultation on Water Connection Charging Policy
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has launched a consultation on the Connection Charging Policy proposed by Irish Water.
Full details on the consultation including proposals, timelines and how to respond to the consultation are on the consultation’s webpage on the CRU website, https://www.cru.ie/document_group/water-connection-charging-policy/.
The response deadline is 23 March 2018.
Any submissions on the Irish Water Connection Charging Policy proposals must be sent to the CRU who will make the final determination on the enduring connection charges policy to be implemented by Irish Water.
In parallel, Irish Water has uploaded the relevant ancillary documentation for review by stakeholders here: https://www.water.ie/connections/information/connection-charges/.
Should you have any comments on the ancillary documentation only, please submit your comments to the following dedicated email ancillaryfeedback@water.ie.
Irish Water will acknowledge all submissions received in relation to these ancillary documents and at the end of the CRU consultation period will publish a consolidated response to the submissions received.
- EU Circular Economy Newsletter
The European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, a policy platform joint initiative by the European Commission and the European Economic Social Committee, is an EU-wide interactive project steered in partnership with European civil society, aiming to facilitate the exchange of best practices, ideas and networking opportunities in the broad field of the circular economy in Europe.
The platform releases a regular newsletter, providing a comprehensive overview of upcoming circular economy news and events.
To access the latest edition of the newsletter, click here.
Also in relation to the Circular Economy, the European Commission published a new ‘European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy’ document, which you can find attached to this weekly digest, labelled as ‘plastics-strategy’.
- Startup Weekend West (Ie): Future of Towns
The ‘Startup Weekend West (Ire)’ is the latest event in the Techstarts Startup Weekend series and will take place over the weekend beginning Friday, 27 April 2018 on Achill Island, off of the coast of Counties Mayo and Galway.
The weekend is an opportunity to network and engage with likeminded entrepreneurs and to develop ideas collaboratively and pitch these ideas to experienced entrepreneurs.
Ticket purchases for attendance at the weekend event will include one-on-one time with mentors, seven full meals, discounts from global partners and more.
For further information and to purchase tickets, click here.
- Mental Health Ireland to launch Smiley Pancake campaign
The #SmileyPancake campaign with Mental Health Ireland will take place on Pancake Tuesday, 13th February 2018. The idea behind it is to get everyone having a pancake on Pancake Tuesday (and that’s pretty much everyone in Ireland!) to pop a smile on it with some toppings, share a photo of it on social media or an internal communications platform, and then donate to Mental Health Ireland. The donation can be via text to donate (€4) or cash donations into a collection bucket.
For further information, graphics for your own internal posters, collection buckets and much more please contact Jill O’Herlihy, Mental Health Ireland at jilloherlihy@mentalhealthireland.ie or 087 795 7717.
If you have any questions in relation to annualised hours, please contact Peninsula’s expert employment law advisors on the 24 Hour Advice Service on 01 855 5050